Versión Español
Spanish – The mechanism that has sustained Chavismo in power for more than two decades is on its way to fulfilling another cycle. Pettiness, greed, and collaborationism entrenched in the Venezuelan opposition have been the dictatorship’s chief allies. Henrique Capriles plays that sad role today. The Socialist Government of Spain is reportedly responsible for the international lobby.
The troupe is already in place for the next electoral fraud. Nicolás Maduro, after buying time with sterile dialogues, sees his re-legitimization around the corner. The participation of sectors of the opposition in the parliamentary elections of December 6 will allow Maduro to question his authoritarian character before the international community.
Since that unfortunate episode of Francisco Arias Cárdenas with a chicken, feigning political rivalry with Hugo Chávez to trick Venezuelans into legitimizing the dictatorship at the polls in 2000, this maneuver has been a constant. Several jesters have staged their most pathetic work to bring some spectators to the circus tent of Venezuelan democracy.
The election trap
The unscrupulous characters who live as political parasites have betrayed the goodwill of the voters. There is little to add about the cases of Henri Falcón and Claudio Fermín, who stepped forward to validate in the name of a supposed opposition the 2018 elections, where Maduro proclaimed his reelection without the recognition of more than 60 countries.
When all was lost, the opposition managed to reunite around the figure of Juan Guaidó. With the endorsement of the constitution and enormous international support, Guaidó assumed the interim presidency and set a course that promised to return freedom and democracy to the country. The interim government failed. They did not fulfill their objectives, and time ran out.
The time has come for the regime to pull out the ace up its sleeve: elections. With the dilemma between voting or not voting, the opposition always ends up with a terrible character that opens the doors to the tyrannical regime for a new cycle of re-legitimization.
Capriles pulls some strings
After handing over the presidency to Maduro in 2013, Henrique Capriles broke the current unitary pact of not participating in the coming electoral fraud, claiming that the National Assembly could not be “handed over” to the regime.
Venezuelans deeply distrust politics and the actors who claim to represent them. The enormous contradictions in discourses, that, in a short time, change from one position to another make the thesis of collaborationism cease to be a simple suspicion.
In 2017, Capriles lashed out at the four Democratic Action governors who were sworn in before the National Constituent Assembly (ANC). The two-time presidential candidate called this episode “immoral” and added that there were sectors who grab any bone the regime throws at them. At the time, Capriles supported the decision to not participate in the election of the ANC because it was an illegal process.
Spanish government lobby and the EU
The personal interest of those who seek to get out of the shadows by fishing in a troubled river is evident. However, there are also external sectors playing their cards on the national political chessboard.
Hermann Tertsch, MEP for VOX, detailed through a Twitter thread the operation led by the Spanish government to re-legitimize the Venezuelan dictatorship. He stated that Henrique Capriles has the international support of President Pedro Sánchez and the Sao Paulo Forum to “save the regime.”
HILO
El gobierno español, encabeza la operación para relegitimar a la dictadura venezolana con unas elecciones bajo Maduro. Falsa oposición y corrupción hunden la opción de Guaido. Con Capriles ahora Maduro, el Foro Sao Paulo y Sánchez quieren salvar al régimen.— Hermann Tertsch (@hermanntertsch) September 6, 2020
Regarding the recent “pardon” granted by the dictatorship to a significant number of political prisoners and persecuted people, Tertsch stressed that this is part of Maduro’s pact with his former political rival.
“Capriles has gone to prisons to offer freedom to prisoners in exchange for support to those elections.” It was not in vain that Capriles was one of the first to publish the video on the release of Congressman Juan Requesens.
The European Union would also be involved in this operation. The Spanish government- along with EU Foreign Affairs Representative Josep Borrell and the Socialists- would be in charge of encouraging support in the European Parliament for the electoral fraud of December 6 in Venezuela.
Interestingly, last Friday, Peter Stano, spokesman for European Union diplomacy, said in an interview that they were “carefully studying” the invitation of Nicolás Maduro’s regime to observe the legislative elections.
Friends of the regime are pleased
The international left’s lobby to present Capriles as the leader of the Venezuelan opposition is already evident. The former secretary of Podemos, Juan Carlos Monedero, published this Sunday a tweet urging the European Union to withdraw support for Juan Guaidó and endorse Capriles.
Si en Venezuela hay un candidato opositor, @hcapriles, apoyado por una amplia mayoría de los opositores a Maduro y con posibilidades electorales ¿qué hace la UE sosteniendo el cadáver patético de @jguaido?¿No hemos hecho ya bastante el ridículo? https://t.co/YEShP3eCM5
— Juan Carlos Monedero (@MonederoJC) September 6, 2020
Also striking is the Twitter message from former Colombian President Ernesto Samper along the same lines. The former Secretary-General of the leftist Unasur highlighted that Capriles’ decision to “lead the opposition that languished in the hands of Guaidó returns oxygen for a democratic exit in Venezuela.”
La decisión de Capriles de liderar la oposición que languideció en manos de Guaidó en episodios como la fracasada invasión humanitaria desde Cúcuta, apoyada por Duque, o la operación de mercenarios para tumbar a Maduro, devuelve oxígeno a una salida democrática para Venezuela.
— Ernesto Samper Pizano (@ernestosamperp) September 3, 2020
Political scientist Pedro Urruchurtu believes that the international support Capriles has received after its decision shows whom this decision benefits. “Until now, Capriles has been adding the support of the Castro regime through Granma, Samper, and Monedero, among others. If the friends of the regime are pleased with his decision, it means that this decision is in the interest of the regime. It also means that Capriles is the regime,” he said on his Twitter account.
